Cricket and Future of Pakistan

 

My only interest in cricket is whether Pakistan won or lost. The recent India Pakistan finals match for Asia Cup was perhaps the only cricket match I ever watched from the beginning till the end. And What a disappointment it was!

While Haris Rauf and Sahibzada Farhan’s teasing hand gestures for the Indian audience about their defeat in the 4 day war were fun to watch, the overall performance of the team and final defeat in this whole series was painful and demoralizing for the whole nation. But it was not surprising. Most people predicted the end knowing the recent history of the teams performance. There has been much speculation about the cause of this shameful record. But if we take a stock of the overall situation in the country, we will come to the conclusion that the rot is everywhere.

From public sector departments and institutions, to education, health and other service delivery departments, up to the level of judiciary and parliament, malfunction is the norm. One comes to the conclusion that nothing is working as it should. Focus of the state is not the betterment of its people but vested interests of the rich and powerful.

To some it is the governance structure which needs to be reformed. some blame corruption and nepotism while others want to extract their own political benefit out of this sorry state of affairs.

However, the rot starts at the top, the parliament. Parliament is the highest institution in the hierarchy of the decision making bodies in the country whose responsibility it is to ensure the fulfillment of the social contract between state and citizens. Parliament is entrusted with the task of setting the future direction of not just the country, not just a few departments, not just to keep the state machinery running efficiently but to have a vision and a plan for the future of the whole society.

However, when the parliament is full of visionless backward looking individuals with outdated ideas, focused only on their own wellbeing, the recent results in cricket and the overall downward slide of the whole society in all indicators is inevitable. If we look at the profiles of the parliamentarians, a vast majority of them is made up of large landlords, big business owners, tribal chiefs, religious leaders and members of various mafias. Everyone knows who belongs to land mafia, sugar mafia, wheat mafia, timber mafia, water mafia etc etc but no one wants to or can do anything about it. A few representatives from the middle class are usually beholden to the elite class mentioned above.

The ones sitting in parliament belong to a special privileged class, having organized themselves into different political parties under the pretense of democracy. But behind the scene their interests, for the most part, are similar. The lust for power and the greed to amass more wealth leads to a tug of war, which is in essence power politics. Elections, every so often, fool people into thinking that they are living in a democracy. So, they fight and argue in public pretending to be speaking on behalf of the public but the goal is to confuse people and keep their attention diverted from the real issues.

This rich ruling class protects its interests in collusion with judiciary and security agencies who are more interested in keeping their own power and influence in political arena than to clean the swamp. All this has led to the status quo, which is maintained by controlling people’s thoughts using various tools, of which religion and tradition are major parts. Dividing people through identity politics, obstructing and/or eliminating all platforms for people to unite and organize for their rights, like trade and student unions, keeping them hand to mouth so they are so embroiled in their own survival battle that they cannot even think beyond where the next time meal is coming from, let alone take action. And then by glorifying charity where those who can give are driven by their desire to make a home in paradise and those at the receiving end are made to feel utterly powerless and dependent on the others generosity, completely shattering their self-respect into smithereens.

So, then what is the solution? The only way forward is a political revolution through a large nationwide grassroots movement of common people with the goal to rebuild this political system around the interests of the common people who have been sidelined for decades. However it is easier said than done. There are many hurdles, the most difficult to get over are, what I call invisible chains around peoples’ thinking, the chains being the old outdated ideas, thoughts and habits based on tradition, culture, sometimes wrapped in religious cloak, which are frozen in time.

Like Iqbal said

جہان تازہ کي افکار تازہ سے ہے نمود
کہ سنگ و خشت سے ہوتے نہيں جہاں پيدا

What is at stake is not just the existence of a country but the fate of 250 Million people.

But the the decision is also in the hands of this mass of downtrodden people. It is a sleeping giant that the elite would rather keep it sleeping.

Our challenge is to wake it, unleash its energy, channel it in positive direction. Whether we will succeed or not depends on how far and deep our message will penetrate in the masses and whether they are able to overcome their apathy. There are no miracles, just human actions which can shatter this status quo.

Dr Shahnaz Khan
Vice chairperson Barabri Party
shahnazk@gmail.com
@shahnazsk